Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

whereas I can move freely along the never-ending path of the moral improvement of humanity. To pass from selfishness to disinterestedness the J. S. Mills themselves are obliged to make dialectical, not to say sophistical, jumps, whereas I proceed straight from one stage to another, slowly but surely. In a word, to logical phantoms I oppose the reality; instead of the absolute principle of interest which claims to establish social equilibrium, I assign as moving spring to public life the relative principle of individual responsibility capable of development, and not in order to realize the millenary dream of perfect equilibrium, but to improve society as much as possible; I do not say, like the Utilitarians: organize interest, but, organize the moral authority of social intimidation, organize individual responsibility for liberty and through liberty.

APPENDIX II

ORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC POWERS'

PART I

1. The head of the State, except when he succeeds by dynastic right, is elected by the members of the national legislature, on an absolute majority of votes, for seven years. He is not re-eligible.

2. The ministers are appointed by the head of the State. They represent the government in the Chambers, and sit in them ex officio with right of debate, as well as in their committees.

The ministers are removed by the head of the State on a resolution of either Chamber, passed in the case of each minister after a public debate in which the minister concerned is heard in his defence.

PART II

1. The national legislature is composed of two assemblies: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

1 This draft scheme of organization of the public powers, which sums up and completes the proposals on the subject developed in the Conclusion, contains, in addition to the fundamental provisions, some clauses embodying the details of the electoral system sketched out. These clauses are printed in small type.

I have not space to annotate this draft on the points which have not been examined in the body of the work; but the principles and the considerations which have suggested the above provisions are self-evident, so to speak, and it is only in two or three cases that I have deemed it expedient to give some explanations in the form of notes at the bottom of the page.

2. The senators are elected through indirect universal suffrage, by electors of the second degree; their number is fixed, and apportioned among the several provinces according to their respective population, or, under federative constitutions, among each state or canton equally. They are appointed for nine years, and are renewable to the extent of one-third, every three years.

An additional number of seats, equal to one-quarter of the number of senators elected on the above plan, is assigned to associate senators, appointed by the constituted bodies, social, economic, and other groups which are specified for that purpose in the law. The associate senators enjoy the same rights and immunities as the other members of the Senate, in the exercise of their functions.

3. The members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by direct universal suffrage for six years, and are renewable to the extent of one-third, every two years.

The candidates for the Chamber of Deputies are nominated by universal suffrage, in a preliminary poll, from among the persons who shall have made, within the period fixed by law, a declaration of their candidature, countersigned by a number of electors not less than that prescribed by the law.

These declarations, accompanied by a statement of the opinions of the declarants, from which all mention of party is rigorously excluded,1 are made known to the electors by means of electoral circulars, distributed from

1 This clause, the object of which is to get a certain intellectual effort out of the elector and to prevent him from voting for a candidate simply on the strength of his label, would be a useless precaution where there are only two or three rival candidates at the election, in England, for instance, and where it is easy to give the dullest electors their cue. But the case would be different in countries where, as in the United States, the number of candidates between whom an elector has to decide at an election is very considerable. The reader will remember how the ignorance of the American elector and his intellectual indolence are assisted by the delivery to him of official voting-papers with the names of the candidates grouped by parties, the title of which is indicated at the top of the column, or even, for the benefit of the illiterate voters, by a preconcerted small picture (an eagle, a ship, a plough, etc).; the elector has only to make a mark under the picture, and he has voted the whole party ticket.

house to house by the public authority,1 within the three days following the closure of the lists of the candidates.

The preliminary poll for the nomination of the candidates takes place fifteen days after the distribution of their declarations, in the forms and according to the procedure in force for the elections.

The declarants, who have obtained the most votes at the preliminary poll, are proclaimed candidates to the number of three times that of the seats to be filled up.

Their names, accompanied by their electoral programmes or manifestoes, which reproduce their first declarations as well as their new declarations, are made known to the electors by the means provided for the declarations of the candidatures.

The definitive election takes place fifteen days after the preliminary poll. Only electors who have voted at the preliminary poll can take part in it.

The electors vote for all the admitted candidates whom they approve, without restriction of number, by order of preference, that is to say, by indicating, besides the persons whom they select as their first choice, other persons subsidiarily. The subsidiary votes are assigned to the candidates in accordance with the provisions of the electoral law.2

The voting-papers, which are drawn up, prepared, and distributed by the public authority, contain the names of all the candidates in alphabetical order, and without any indication of their political opinions. The electors signify their choice by marking the names with figures, 1, 2, 3, etc., in the order of preference.

The candidates who have obtained the required number of votes, with or without the addition of the subsidiary ones, are proclaimed elected.

In constituencies with several seats, the latter may be distributed among the candidates who have received the most support at the poll according to the proportional method fixed by the law.

The seat of a deputy becomes vacant before the expiration of the term of his mandate, in addition to vacancy through

1 The object of this provision is not only to enable the electors to become acquainted with the opinions of the rival candidates and compare them at leisure in the stillness of their homes, but also to check the growth of billsticking, which has of late assumed alarming proportions, has singularly enhanced election expenditure in countries where, as in France, it was very moderate a short time back, and which exercises an untoward influence on electoral manners in other respects as well.

2 The law will provide for this according to the electoral system in force: single-member ticket or general ticket, majority vote or proportional vote.

death, resignation, or legal incapacity, if a petition for his removal is addressed to the president of the Chamber, signed by a number of electors of his constituency, being not less than half of the number of electors on the register at the last election.

PART III

1. The members of the judiciary are appointed for life by the head of the State.

2. The judges are removed by the head of the State, on the proposal of the Supreme Court, set in motion by the government, or by the judges of the courts and tribunals of the respective jurisdiction, or by the citizens amenable to the jurisdiction, represented for this purpose by a number of persons fixed by the law. The decision of the Supreme Court is delivered after a public hearing of both sides.

3. The public prosecutors are removed by the head of the State, on the proposal of their hierarchical chiefs.

« AnteriorContinuar »